O-A Visa. No re-entry fee paid

[Bournville]

My O-A Visa was issued May 2017. I travelled in and out of Thailand on several occasions in the first year and my latest "must leave TH" date is April 2019.

 

I travelled away from TH a few weeks ago and plan on returning in a few more weeks..mid January. However, I did not pay for a re-entry fee during the second year of my O-A visa.

 

Can I simply arrive at BKK and pay the re-entry fee at the airport? Will there be some sort of penalty. Or must *I would rather not* go to a TH embassy here in the USA to do this?

 

If I cannot do this.. then what are my options?  Thanks in advance.

 

 

[elviajero]

If you left without buying a re-entry permit there is nothing you can do. Your current 'O-A' visa and the permit to stay until April 2019 have finished.

 

You need a new 'O-A' or other visa.

[Bournville]

4 hours ago, elviajero said:

If you left without buying a re-entry permit there is nothing you can do. Your current 'O-A' visa and the permit to stay until April 2019 have finished.

 

You need a new 'O-A' or other visa.

 

4 hours ago, elviajero said:

If you left without buying a re-entry permit there is nothing you can do. Your current 'O-A' visa and the permit to stay until April 2019 have finished.

 

You need a new 'O-A' or other visa.

Uups. That's not good. Why is there a stamp in my passport good until April 2019? Very odd. But.. Uups. 

[Crossy]

11 minutes ago, Bournville said:

Why is there a stamp in my passport good until April 2019? Very odd.

Not odd at all, that's the permission to stay you had from your last entry, it died when the immigration chap stamped you out with no re-entry permit.

 

[Andrew Dwyer]

Yup, as the others have said.
Your O-A is now finished, deceased, passed on , expired, curled it’s toes up !

It is an EX O -A !!

[Justin Side]

As said, no reentry permit means your permission to stay ended on the day you left.

Start again.

[Briggsy]

@Bournville

 

The silver lining to this is that you will probably only make this mistake once.

 

You need to get a new visa of some sort or enter on a visa exempt.

[OJAS]

38 minutes ago, Briggsy said:

@Bournville

 

The silver lining to this is that you will probably only make this mistake once.

 

You need to get a new visa of some sort or enter on a visa exempt.

Might be risky for @Bournville to go down the visa exempt route, though, since he might be denied permission to board his return flight from the USA unless he has booked an onward flight out of Thailand within the following 30 days.

 

Best that he obtains a fresh non-O visa (if this is still possible in the USA on the grounds of being aged 50 or over) or, at the very least, a single-entry tourist visa (which he could subsequently convert to a non-O one at his local immigration office here).

[ubonjoe]

7 hours ago, Bournville said:

Or must *I would rather not* go to a TH embassy here in the USA to do this?

 

You will have to either apply for a new OA visa at at the embassy in Washington DC, or one of the consulates in New York, Chicago or Los Angeles or apply for a tourist visa and then do a change of visa status to get a non immigrant visa (category O) entry at immigration after you can meet the financial requirements for an extension of stay application.

 

31 minutes ago, OJAS said:

Best that he obtains a fresh non-O visa (if this is still possible in the USA on the grounds of being aged 50 or over)

It is not possible to get one in the US.

[onera1961]

3 hours ago, Bournville said:

Uups. That's not good. Why is there a stamp in my passport good until April 2019? Very odd. But.. Uups. 

Does the stamp on your visa sticker say valid until April 2019? If so, it is good. You can enter without any issue. No need for reentry permit if the visa sticker is not stamped USED.

 

There is a visa sticker which has a valid until date. That means the visa is valid until that date. If it is not stamped USED, you can enter on or before that date.

There is an IO stamp (a square stamp on your passport page) that will have a stamp Admitted Until. You can stay on or up to that date in Thailand without overstaying. 

Edited December 31, 2018 by onera1961

[onera1961]

2 hours ago, OJAS said:

Best that he obtains a fresh non-O visa

No US embassy or consular will issue a Non-O visa unless there is a Thai relative (wife or child) or working for a voluntary mission.

Edited December 31, 2018 by onera1961

[ubonjoe]

5 minutes ago, onera1961 said:

Does the stamp on your visa sticker say valid until April 2019?

He stated this in the OP. His visa has already expired,

8 hours ago, Bournville said:

My O-A Visa was issued May 2017. I travelled in and out of Thailand on several occasions in the first year and my latest "must leave TH" date is April 2019.

 

[skorts]

Sorry to be thick Ubon Joe but I am still a bit confused with this discussion. 

 

My O-A Visa states “No of Entry” - “M” which makes it a multiple entry with no need to get individual re-entry permits. 

 

I understood with an “O-A” each time you left Thailand within the first 12 months of entry you automatically got another 12 months on re-entry which effectively means you could stay for 2 years before doing your first Extension.  

 

Does this mean the multiple re-entry permits are only valid for the first 12 months from first date of entry?

 

I have just completed my 4th Extension so is not an issue for me but it was something I was not aware of at the time. 

 

Really good to have this topic raised as it will be very helpful to others to ensure they get their re-entry permit during the 2nd year of an “O-A” Visa if they plan to leave Thailand during that time. 

[ubonjoe]

5 minutes ago, skorts said:

I understood with an “O-A” each time you left Thailand within the first 12 months of entry you automatically got another 12 months on re-entry which effectively means you could stay for 2 years before doing your first Extension.  

 

Does this mean the multiple re-entry permits are only valid for the first 12 months from first date of entry?

A OA visa allows unlimited one year entries up to the date it expires. After the visa expires you would not get a new entry.

You have to have a re-entry permit to keep your current permit to stay valid if you want to travel and enter the country after your visa expires. You would be stamped into the country to the date the permit to stay the re-entry permit is issued for ends .

[Andrew Dwyer]

Your O-A visa has an “ enter before “ date on it which is 1 year after it was issued, up to the enter before date you are allowed to come and go on the multi entry part of the visa.

When you reach the enter before date your visa expires, if you re entered the country slightly before it expires you will have an “ admitted to stay” stamp in your passport with a date 1 year in the future, hence the 2 years obtained from an O-A visa often quoted.

 

Note: 1st year you are on an O-A multi entry visa.

2nd year you are on permission to stay kept alive by using re-entry permits.

3rd year and onwards you are on extension to stay based on retirement and need to continue using re-entry permits.

 

 

EDIT: Joe beat me too it ☹️

[mikeSilom]

14 minutes ago, skorts said:

Sorry to be thick Ubon Joe but I am still a bit confused with this discussion. 

 

My O-A Visa states “No of Entry” - “M” which makes it a multiple entry with no need to get individual re-entry permits. 

 

I understood with an “O-A” each time you left Thailand within the first 12 months of entry you automatically got another 12 months on re-entry which effectively means you could stay for 2 years before doing your first Extension.  

 

Does this mean the multiple re-entry permits are only valid for the first 12 months from first date of entry?

 

I have just completed my 4th Extension so is not an issue for me but it was something I was not aware of at the time. 

 

Really good to have this topic raised as it will be very helpful to others to ensure they get their re-entry permit during the 2nd year of an “O-A” Visa if they plan to leave Thailand during that time. 

 

A re-entry permit was not needed during the 2nd year of my O-A multiple entry visa (this was in 2013). I entered and left repeatedly during those first two years without issues. As you mentioned, they keep extending your permission to stay by 12 months every time you return until the date hits the 2 year max. I reventually did get the multiple entry in anticipation of a trip that might bring me back after that final expiration. 

[ubonjoe]

2 minutes ago, mikeSilom said:

A re-entry permit was not needed during the 2nd year of my O-A multiple entry visa (this was in 2013). I entered and left repeatedly during those first two years without issues.

That is not correct unless an immigration officer made a mistake. After the visa expires if you enter without a re-entry permit you would only get a 30 day visa exempt entry.

2 minutes ago, mikeSilom said:

As you mentioned, they keep extending your permission to stay by 12 months every time you return until the date hits the 2 year max. I reventually did get the multiple entry in anticipation of a trip that might bring me back after that final expiration. 

They do not extend your permission to stay when you enter the country. You get a new one year entry every time you enter the country up to the date your visa expires.

A re-entry permit only keeps the permit to stay date it was issued for. It adds no days.

[Lee4Life]

UbonJoe's replies are correct, I "stretched" my O-A visa last year by leaving on the date of its expiration and then coming back in on the same day and then buying a multiple re-entry permit so I could leave and re-enter again if I needed to.

       Another time I had tried to do the same thing but I misunderstood the procedure and left and returned on the day my "permission to stay until" date expired, when I came back in the officer explained that I should have left and come back in on the day the visa expired because now he had to stamp me in on a visa exempt entry instead as my O-A visa was done.

[skorts]

Thanks to you all for your feedback and clarification. As I say not directly impacting me now but I think it is really helpful to others who are going down the “O-A” route.


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[Suradit69]

13 hours ago, mikeSilom said:

 

A re-entry permit was not needed during the 2nd year of my O-A multiple entry visa (this was in 2013). I entered and left repeatedly during those first two years without issues. As you mentioned, they keep extending your permission to stay by 12 months every time you return until the date hits the 2 year max. I reventually did get the multiple entry in anticipation of a trip that might bring me back after that final expiration. 

Your O-A visa wouldn't have a 2nd year. It would be valid for one year from the date it was issued. It cannot be extended or renewed. After it expires you would need a re-!entry permit when traveling outside Thailand or else on your return you'd lose the balance of your last permission to stay and simply be given a visa exempt entry and 30 day permission to stay based on that. If you were doing frequent ins and outs you might simply have been given a succession of visa exemptions back in 2013 when they were more freely available.

Edited January 1, 2019 by Suradit69